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| Todd "Scoops" Ming | |
|---|---|
| |
| Name | Todd "Scoops" Ming |
| A/K/A | Scoops |
| Gender | Male |
| Age | 10 |
| Occupation | Reporter for The Daily Rag, Student |
| Alignment | Good |
| Race | Human |
| Friends | Violet Heaslip (crush) Becky Botsford |
| Family | Great Grandpa Ming (great-grandfather) Great Grandma Ming (great-grandmother) Mr. Ming (great-uncle) Grandpa Ming (grandfather) Grandma Ming (grandmother) Mr. Ming (father) Mrs. Ming (mother) Ms. Ming (aunt) Simon (cousin) Unnamed pet pig Unnamed dog |
| Abilities | A knack for always being "on the scoop" for any upcoming news stories |
| Voice Actor | Ryan Raddatz |
Todd "Scoops" Ming is a character in WordGirl. He is a 10-year-old boy who works as a news reporter for the school newspaper The Daily Rag. He is one of Becky Botsford's friends. Becky appears to have a crush on him, which he does not appear to be aware of or reciprocate.
History[]
Todd's dream is to work for The Big City Times and was able to cover a story on Granny May in the episode "Bonkers for Bingo" after being hired by the paper's director, Woodward Bernstein (whose name is a reference to Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, the journalists who exposed the Watergate scandal). However, he still has a long way to go in order to be the famous ace reporter he wants to be. Even Becky agrees (sometimes, and rather reluctantly) that his articles can be rather dull. According to the official WordGirl website: Scoops is a reporter on The Daily Rag, Woodview Elementary's school newspaper. Scoops desperately wants to be an ace reporter. He's a go-getter who knows there are a thousand stories in the big city and he wants to be the first to report them, especially uncovering WordGirl's identity. Becky has a secret crush on Scoops and is somehow always able to get him an inside story on WordGirl.
He is desperate to figure out WordGirl's secret identity and is constantly on the scene for any evidence. At one point, Todd claimed WordGirl is much older than she looks by "reporter's instinct" and also that he had ruled out everyone he knew as being WordGirl. However, in the episode "Vocab Bee", he began to deduce from an abundance of obvious clues that Becky was WordGirl. Becky managed to throw him off by purposefully defining a simple word (perfect) incorrectly at the Vocab Bee. He does eventually discover that Becky is WordGirl in "Invasion of the Bunny Lovers". At first he states that this was the biggest scoop he'd ever gotten and wanted to publish it but Becky insisted for the sake of her secret and safety that he not tell anyone, the two team up to save the day. In the end after interviewing WordGirl Scoops realizes that some stories are better left a secret.
The oblivious Todd has a high opinion of himself and doesn't hesitate to take credit for anything he might possibly have had to do with, such as the time he retold the story of Romeo and Juliet during the episode "Becky and the Bard". During said episode, it was also revealed he doesn't know how to take stage direction correctly, as he read all his lines in addition to the direction. Because of this, he managed to be cast as the Orchard Wall.
Relationships[]
Family[]
Todd lives with his mother and father. He also has an aunt, a grandpa, a great-uncle, and great grandparents.
WordGirl/Becky Botsford[]
Becky has always had a crush on Scoops, but he has never expressed any romantic interest in her. However, they have always shared a special relationship. In the episode "Invasion of The Bunny Lovers", Scoops discovers that Becky is WordGirl when she is forced to rescue him from a mob of people who are under mind control. He then has to choose between revealing her, or protecting her identity to help her continue saving the city. In the end, he chooses to respect her privacy, and their friendship grows stronger as a result. There are several instances where Scoops actually shows his stern side to Becky specifically in "Set Sail for the Bake Sale". The Debate Team was holding a Bake Sale to get new podiums but Becky only saw this as an opportunity to get tickets to a Pretty Princess Concert despite the club's protest. Eventually Scoops spoke up on behalf of the club to Becky how she was not being fair as they were trying to get new podiums while she wanted something else and they wanted to Becky removed from the club. Becky then understood that she was being selfish and decided to fix the situation.
Violet Heaslip[]
It is also seen that he shares a special friendship for Violet Heaslip. In "Cherish is the Word", he asks Violet to be his Valentine, which she accepted. In "The Rise of Miss Power" they were also seen eating ice cream and holding hands. In "Time-Out with Two-Brains", Becky demonstrates that she is somewhat jealous of this relationship: Scoops and Violet are walking together in the park when time is stopped, and Becky/WordGirl slyly turns Scoops 180 degrees, so they will end up walking in opposite directions and losing track of one another.
Tobey McCallister III[]
Scoops was shown to be somewhat fearful of Tobey McCallister III, as seen in "Cherish is the Word". Tobey had challenged Scoops to a duel, resulting in Scoops passing out and later writing a goodbye article to readers of The Daily Rag. In other episodes, such as "Talent Show Tobey", Scoops is shown to be less scared of Tobey. The both of them compete against each other in Fair City's talent show, and shove each other in the process. Another instance where they show their competitive side was in "Win a Day with WordGirl" where the two of them were desperate to win a day with WordGirl (as was TJ) this lead to a rough scuffle between the three of them. In the end though none of them won as Tobey was disqualified for destruction of public property and both Scoops and TJ were in too deep so Violet won instead, much to their disappointment. In "Tobey's Playground Calamity" when Tobey asked Becky about her having the playground named in her honor, Tobey calls to Scoops that the story is right with him.
Rose Franklin[]
When Rose first came to Woodview Elementary, Scoops was impressed that Rose was also a news person but after explaining that she was an investigative reporter, Scoops became somewhat jealous and threatened that there was a better reporter in town. Becky tries to get Scoops and Rose to get along but it does not go well. When Rose has proof that Becky and WordGirl are the same person, she tried to get Scoops to publish the story. Instead of starting a fight or reveal that he already knew WordGirl's identity, he simply explained the cons of the story. If WordGirl's identity was revealed the villains would never leave her alone, WordGirl is constantly risking her life to keep the city safe, (even helping Rose's father who would have been stuck working late had WordGirl not come), and Becky was the one person who welcomed Rose when she first came to school. He also points out he likes Rose as well as Becky helped him see what a great person she is. While still determined to tell the truth like any reporter would, Rose then understood Scoops' reasons and instead published a different story.
Appearances[]
Trivia[]
- He secretly collects unicorns.[1]
- Scoops has two pets: a pet pig who wears a similar hat to him[2], and a dog.[1]
- Aside from his enjoyment of being a reporter, he is shown to be good at magic.
- Scoops is shown twice to live in an apartment downtown.
Gallery[]
Stock Images[]
Screenshots[]
.jpg "(Fearful Todd).jpg (11 KB)")
See also[]
- The pointing lady in the opening, seen standing alongside Todd, who shares a similar appearance to him and Emily.